The Keepers of the Feather
Hook
The company has finally met Two Hundred Summers. The Keepers’ Barovian leader has offered new paths toward answers and the possibility of wereravenhood if the party proves itself by returning intelligence.
Evidence
- Two Hundred Summers met the company, described the Dark Powers and domain prisons, and gave it Klorr’s watch.
- He asked the company to return intelligence and offered wereravenhood if it proved itself; no transformation or rank change took place.
- Vidic has appeared as a raven, a winged humanoid hybrid, and a black-haired human man.
- The Keepers use crows and ravens as observers.
- They travel between domains through the Mists.
- They witnessed Azalin’s attempted transformation fail.
- Vidic distinguished the Keepers from the King’s Ravens associated with Azalin.
- Vidic was shocked to encounter Erasmus outside Richten House.
- Ignatius proposed a future meeting with Vidic at Richten House.
- Vidic holds the rank of Holder of the Feather.
- All three adventurers swore an oath to fight evil and support the Keepers.
- The party became Talons, learned the order’s recognition signs, and received raven-commanding feathers.
- Vidic gave them a Mist talisman capable of leading them to Barovia.
- The feathers cannot command the King’s Ravens.
- Vidic named Two Hundred Summers as his direct superior and the leader of the Keepers in Barovia.
- He accepted intelligence concerning Castle Avernus and the Kargatane scarecrow network.
- He rewarded Carver with a Veteran’s Cane and taught the party a Corvid farewell.
- Vidic later found the party in the Mists and directed them toward Keeper contacts at Vallaki’s inn and the Wizard of Wines.
- In Vallaki, Ignatius used his feather to send a raven announcing the party’s arrival.
- Urwin recognized the Keepers’ code words at the Blue Water Inn and asked to meet privately, confirming a local contact point.
- Urwin offered the party free rooms, arranged for ravens to watch it, and agreed to seek information about reaching Two Hundred Summers.
- Urwin said his family has watched over the Blue Water Inn and Wizard of Wines for generations, showing that parts of the network are inherited.
- The Wizard of Wines is in crisis because its grapes have stopped growing, and Urwin’s father blames him.
Current understanding
- The company remains sworn Talons; Vidic is a Holder of the Feather and Two Hundred Summers leads the Barovian order.
- The Blue Water Inn is a confirmed refuge. Two Hundred Summers met the company there and departed with three accompanying Keepers, all as ravens.
- The immediate request is to seek and return intelligence. Wereravenhood remains conditional.
- The Amber Temple and Klorr are new investigative leads, not orders to travel to a specific destination.
Open questions
- What information will prove the company’s worth, and what does the offered gift entail?
- What did the Keepers witness when Azalin’s transformation failed?
- What does the order know about Erasmus and Van Richten?
- How extensive is the network beyond Barovia?
- Which earlier watchers were Keepers, and which were Azalin’s King’s Ravens?
- What has happened at the Wizard of Wines?
Next steps
- Follow the temple and Klorr leads and bring useful discoveries to the Keepers.
- Clarify the offered transformation before accepting it.
- Investigate the Wizard of Wines and the failure of its vines.
- Learn what the order witnessed during Azalin’s transformation.